Multipath TCP subflow establishment and control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9456464-B2
Application number	US-201313911759-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 6, 2013
Priority date	Jun 6, 2013
Publication date	Sep 27, 2016
Grant date	Sep 27, 2016

Abstract

Techniques for electronic devices to control a multipath transmission control protocol (MPTCP) connection. An MPTCP connection between two endpoints may be established. The MPTCP connection may include at least one MPTCP subflow. At least one of the endpoints may be configured to act as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection. The master may perform one or more control operations on the MPTCP connection, while if one of the endpoints is not a master, that endpoint may not perform control operations on the MPTCP connection. The control operations may include initiating or establishing new MPTCP subflows or modifying a priority level of one or more MPTCP subflows of the MPTCP connection.

First claim

We claim:

1. A wireless user equipment (UE) device, comprising:
a Wi-Fi network interface;
a cellular network interface;
a processing element operably coupled to the Wi-Fi network interface and the cellular network interface;
wherein the UE is configured to:
attempt to establish a multipath transmission control protocol (MPTCP) subflow with a remote endpoint over the Wi-Fi network interface;
attempt to establish a non-multipath transmission control protocol (TCP) connection with the remote endpoint over the Wi-Fi network interface if attempting to establish the MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint over the Wi-Fi network interface is unsuccessful;
attempt to establish an MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint over the cellular network interface if attempting to establish the non-multipath TCP connection with the remote endpoint over the Wi-Fi network interface is unsuccessful; and
attempt to establish a non-multipath TCP connection with the remote endpoint over the cellular network interface if attempting to establish the MPTCP connection with the remote endpoint over the cellular network interface is unsuccessful;
wherein if the non-multipath TCP connection with the remote endpoint over the Wi-Fi network interface is successfully established, no attempt is made to establish an MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint over the cellular network interface.

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the UE is further configured to:
attempt to establish an additional MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint over the cellular network interface if attempting to establish an MPTCP subflow with a remote endpoint over the Wi-Fi network interface is successful.

3. The UE of claim 1 , wherein to attempt to establish an MPTCP subflow, the UE is configured to attempt to perform a three-phase handshake procedure with the remote endpoint, wherein each message transmitted in the three-phase handshake procedure comprises a multipath TCP header option, wherein the UE is further configured to:
determine that each message in the three-phase handshake procedure with the remote endpoint is successfully received with its respective multipath TCP header option;
attempt to transmit or receive MPTCP data over the MPTCP subflow based on determining that each message in the three-phase handshake procedure with the remote endpoint is successfully received with its respective multipath TCP header option;
determine that the MPTCP data is received without a multipath TCP header option;
fall back to non-multipath TCP communication with the remote endpoint based on determining that the MPTCP data is received without the multipath TCP header option.

4. The UE of claim 1 , wherein to attempt to establish an MPTCP subflow, the UE is configured to attempt to perform a three-phase handshake procedure with the remote endpoint, wherein each message transmitted in the three-phase handshake procedure comprises a multipath TCP header option, wherein the UE is further configured to:
determine that at least one message in the three-phase handshake procedure is not received;
perform one or more additional attempts to establish an MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint;
attempt to establish a non-multipath TCP connection with the remote endpoint if the one or more additional attempts to establish an MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint are unsuccessful.

5. The UE of claim 1 ,
wherein the UE is configured to monitor the network interface status of each of the Wi-Fi network interface and the cellular network interface,
wherein the UE is configured to preferentially perform data communications over the Wi-Fi network interface relative to the cellular network interface if both the Wi-Fi network interface and the cellular network interface are available.

6. A method for a wireless device to establish a multipath TCP (MPTCP) connection with a remote endpoint, wherein the wireless device comprises both a Wi-Fi network interface and a cellular network interface, the method comprising:
receiving information indicating availability status of each of the Wi-Fi network interface and the cellular network interface; and
attempting to establish an MPTCP subflow with a remote endpoint, wherein attempting to establish the MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint is preferentially performed over the Wi-Fi network interface if the Wi-Fi network interface is available;
wherein said attempting to establish the MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint comprises
attempting to establish an MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint over the Wi-Fi network interface if it is determined that the Wi-Fi network interface of the device is currently available;
attempting to establish a standard transmission control protocol (TCP) connection with the remote endpoint over the Wi-Fi network interface if the attempt to establish the MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint over the Wi-Fi network interface is unsuccessful; and
attempting to establish an MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint over the cellular network interface if the attempt to establish a standard TCP connection with the remote endpoint over the Wi-Fi network interface is unsuccessful, and the cellular network interface is available.

7. The method of claim 6 ,
wherein if attempting to establish an MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint over the cellular network interface is unsuccessful, the MPTCP subflow establishment attempt over the cellular network interface falls back to an attempt to establish a standard TCP connection with the remote endpoint over the cellular network interface.

8. The method of claim 6 ,
wherein attempting to establish the MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint is performed over the cellular interface if a TCP connection fails to be established over the Wi-Fi network interface.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises:
determining that a first MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint is successfully established over the Wi-Fi network interface;
determining that the cellular network interface is available; and
attempting to establish a second MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint over the cellular network interface based on determining that the first MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint is successfully established over the Wi-Fi network interface and determining that the cellular network interface is available.

10. The method of claim 6 ,
wherein the method is implemented by a transport connection management layer executing in the wireless device, wherein the transport connection management layer is configured to determine network interface use preferences based on one or more of:
network interface availability information;
network interface link quality characteristics; or
network interface use cost characteristics.

11. A non-transitory computer accessible memory medium comprising program instructions which, when executed at a processing element of a device, cause the device to implement a method, comprising:
receiving an indication to initiate a transmission control protocol (TCP) T-GP session with a remote endpoint;
determining whether or not a first network interface of the device is currently available;
determining whether or not a second network interface of the device is currently available;
attempting to establish a multipath transmission control protocol (MPTCP) an MPTCP subflow with the remote endpoint over the first network interface if it is determined that the first network interface of the device is currently available;
attempting to establish a single path TCP connection with the remote endpoint over the first network interface if the first network interface of the device is currently available but the attempt to estab

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Biswas Anumita
• Graessley Joshua V

Classifications

• H04L45/24 Primary

  Multipath · CPC title

• H04W76/026 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/141 Primary

  Setup of application sessions (admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70) · CPC title

• H04W76/16

  Involving different core network technologies, e.g. a packet-switched [PS] bearer in combination with a circuit-switched [CS] bearer · CPC title

• H04L69/14

  Multichannel or multilink protocols · CPC title